It was Valentines day and Ino was angry with him. Itach sighed, yes he supposed she had her reasons but she had to realise this was just a day, they had plenty of others together to do romantic things together and he couldn't see why the date of this one was so vital to the events that took place within it.

"Saa.." She wined as she paced up the hill behind him. "I guess it's not that bad."

Itachi turned to her, a dark eyebrow raised and with that amused half smile on his lips that he often got while in the blonde's presence. She was rather a strange one now, wasn't she? "Oh, is that so?" He paused for a moment to survey their surroundings. For the life of him he could not see why her opinion had changed, the mountain was as dark and craggy as it had always been and he was sure there were much more beautiful places they could be spending their 'romantic walk' together. Turning back to her he held out a hand to help her up a particularly steep ledge. "You like it here then, Ino-san?"

"Well… I admit it's not exactly as pretty as the annual sakura viewing that you better be taking me to to make up for this." Her tone had taken on that determined, won't take no for an answer ring to it and Itachi held back a roll of his eyes. "And you could have warned me about the mud, these are new shoes you know?!" She stopped herself, then though Itachi was sure her complaints could have gone on for hours, and let a smile linger on her lips. "But I guess it does have it's charms and," Her blue eyes gave him the once over. "I can't say I mind the view."

At that Itachi did let out a chuckle. He had never met someone so willing to say exactly what was on their mind at any given moment and he supposed it was one of the main things that had attracted him to his unlikely partner. It was so different to his own unwillingness to indulge in his guarded thoughts, not that she hadn't beaten most of them out of him at some point or another. "Come on, it's not much further now," he urged her. The sun was setting in the distance and if past visits were anything to go by he didn't want her here after darkness fell. She might not be taking this trip seriously but Itachi knew better than to let his guard down around here.

In truth the raven would have preferred it if she had chosen not to accompany him at all but she had insisted that they should at least spend the day together, even if they had to spend it climbing up mountains to bargain with rogue ninja cats. Lifting slender hands Itachi retied the band around his dark locks, brushing stubborn bangs from his eyes. The Uchiha had hoped that after that business with Sasuke the group would stay quiet, keep themselves to themselves, but it seemed their leader wasn't too happy with having to let a child defeat him.

As they climbed the next ridge the small fortress ringing their town came into sight. Reaching for the pouch tied at his waist the man produced two sets of cat ears, pressing one into Ino's hands before sliding the second pair on his own head.

"Kya!"

The sudden outburst from the other surprised him, had something happened? Locking on to her he saw azure eyes were widened in surprise, her pink lips hanging open as she stared at him.

"Ino-san? What is it? What's wrong?" His questioning seemed to snap some sense into her as a deep heat spread across her cheeks and she averted her gaze. Her fingers instead busied themselves with setting her own headband upon her head. After a moment surveying her for clues as to what had caused her shock Itachi decided to just let it go. Ino had weird ways and he had learnt long ago that it was best not to pry into the reasoning behind most of her actions. Instead he merely made a motion to signal her silence and hurried forward, sensing her following quietly behind him.

As they reached the front gate they were greeted with the familiar set of guards, their yellow eyes narrowed in suspision as the strangers drew closer. Itachi stopped a few steps in front of the pair, a stern look on his face. He knew that this was little more than a formality, despite what the ninja cats liked to think it was embarrassingly easy to get into their private lair and Itachi himself had done it on numerous occasions. Even his younger brother and his less than remarkable teammates had managed it at one point.

One of the guards drew close to him, a female apparently if the way she was surveying him was anything to go by. "My," She purred. "You must be new around here, I'm sure I would recognise your face."

From the corner of his eye he could see Ino stiffen at the feline's words and internally he willed her not to speak against the other. Really, must she get jealous over every little thing? If she suspected an animal was worthy of feeling envious over Itachi would begin to worry just what she thought of him.

"Yes, I am new. Recently recruited." His tone was firm and he hoped it would be enough to deter her less than subtle advances for both their sake.

"Hm well, I'm sure I can pull some strings… Maybe get you on guard duty." Her mouth quirked into a smile which, due to the viscious fangs it put on show, was far more intimidating that reassuring.

Well, that had done it. The glare on Ino's face turned to a look of pure rage. "Hey you! Keep your skanky kitty paws off my boyfriend!" And without a word of warning she had propelled herself towards the cat, headband slipping to the floor as she did so.

There was no time for Itachi to stop her, he should have known the volatile blonde wouldn't have been able to keep a lid on her temper but as always he underestimated the power of her jealous nature. The guard lashed out at her, catching her across the chest.

With one swift movement a kunai was in the man's hand and, as fast as war swept over Konoha many years ago, the two guards has been disposed of - one without even realising they were now enemies. Gently he took the blonde in his arms, catching her before she stumbled to the floor, and fled from the scene before back-up could arrive.

Stopping a little way away from the fort Itachi glanced down, not wanting to see the streaks of crimson that stained the breast of the girl's shirt. "Ino.." he whispered, bringing her close to press his lips to her forehead, the tears that ran down his cheeks meeting his mouth with a salty taste. His words were almost lost as they pressed against the other's smooth skin. "Why did you do that? Why must you put yourself in danger like this?"

Ino scoffed. Even now, injured as she was, she still had the audacity to back up her crazy actions as if they had been completely justified. "Because I love you Itachi-san!"

In any other situation Itachi would have laughed at how despite how caring her words were her voice was filled with anger at his apparent obliviousness.

His hands were lost in her hair as he pressed kisses along her jaw, letting his lips eventually meet with her own. A kiss tinged with the tase of copper as the crimson that bled from her mouth touched his tongue.

"I love you too, Ino-san."

It will always be only you.